A good guy / bad guy sorta deal

Okay, so here's the deal. In my novel, The Suicide Note, my main character falsly accues his father of abusing him. I want to show a slightly human side of the father before he gets snowballed with his son's lie. Father ends up being arrested for covering up a murder, but still, I think a bit of a humanistic viewpoint of him would be good. I'm not sure how to insert that.

Ok.. well, that sort of depends upon what the human side aspect is. If he saved someone's life, you could have that person show up to help out the father when he gets arrested. If the father is a big philanthropist you could have him arrested at some gathering where he is giving away a lot of charity money. Can't say much else without some detail as to what the father did that makes him a better person.

Try giving him a reason for what he is doing. Even if you don't agree with him, a "bad guy's" actions always need to have a purpose. Most villains do things for a reason. If you wanted to go that far, you could even give him a good reason for what he is doing. It could be protecting a family member. A bad reason would be something like money. No one sympathizes with a selfish villain. You could even go a little between the two. Maybe he is threatened with torture or death. The reason is still selfish, but at least the reader can see why he would do what he did.

Edit: I see that you need something for the "before" part. There are multiple things you can use. Make him come home extremely tired from work. Maybe he got fired. Use something that won't seem out of place with the rest of the story. If he is being nice to his son, nobody will believe the abuse part. However, if he comes home drunk, you could still make him very human, and at the same time abuse won't seem all that crazy anymore.

Interesting tips, both of you. I think I am going to make the son delvege on drugs (and that's why he accused his father), and then he just makes a huge mistake. Keep in note the father is innocent... Thanks for all the tips. Writewizard

Where is the boy's mother in all of this? Is she alive? Are the parents divorced? Because I was thinking maybe she could be a part of it. Maybe she is a power hungry individual, has control issues. She emotionally abuses the father, causing him to take out a considerable amount of anger on the son, but never kill him. But when the son commits suicide (I'm assuming he does, because of the title), the father is so petrified of the controlling, abusive mother and her reaction that he tries to make it look like an accident, hence him being questioned and suspected of murder. Maybe. That's just my two cents.